Animal Rescuers Offer Home to 700 Baby Turtles

Marshall Wilson, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published 4:00 am, Friday, September 18, 1998

1998-09-18 04:00:00 PDT MOUNTAIN VIEW -- Hundreds of tiny turtles seized at a street fair in Mountain View Saturday are a step closer to finding a home thanks to offers of support by two reptile rescue groups.

Animal welfare officials are making arrangements for the two turtle groups to care for the red- eared sliders, named for the scarlet color on the sides of their heads. Mountain View police seized nearly 700 of the turtles -- each about the size of a silver dollar -- from two street vendors.

It is illegal to sell turtles smaller than four inches across the shell. The sellers also are accused of not warning buyers that the turtles carry salmonella, a potentially fatal bacteria in humans.

Rather than destroy the creatures, officials have spent the past few days arranging for their survival.

"If they want, we'll pick them up," said Gary Wilfong of Bay Area Turtle Rescue in Hayward.

Wilfong's group and the separate Tortoise Trust in San Jose may receive the baby turtles today, said Sandi Stadler, superintendent of Palo Alto's Animal Control Services, which is caring for them. The turtles are now in three children's wading pools at the shelter, munching on processed turtle food.

The state Fish and Game Department is investigating the illegal sales. Officials could not be reached for comment yesterday.

At the Castro Street art and wine festival, one of the vendors was selling turtles for $11 apiece as pets, Stadler said. Typically, nearly all die soon after they are brought home, she said.

Many were a week or less old when they were seized, she said. Police confiscated 693 turtles in all.

As word spread of the health threat and illegal sales, five people turned in turtles they had bought at the fair. One was left on the shelter's doorstep with a copy of a newspaper article about the seizure.

Of the 698 turtles, 13 have died, Stadler said.

At the shelter in Palo Alto yesterday, the tiny turtles paddled around their wading pools and climbed atop one another on artificial islands.

Wilfong said he and his wife have a half-acre in the East Bay where about 200 adult turtles and tortoises roam. They started rescuing the reptiles years ago from the illegal trade and will care for the Mountain View turtles because they don't want to see them harmed, he said.